Where Marketers are Spending their Advertising Dollars and More Social Media Marketing News

If you’re on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve heard that 50 million accounts were hacked earlier this month. So if you haven’t changed your password already, please do it now. And then come back to read this article because I have more social media trends for business and digital marketing news for you.

Instagram’s Dedicated Section for Hashtags and More Social Media Trends for Business

1. Echo Devices will Have Image Search Features thanks to Getty Images

Amazon partnered with Getty Images to provide image-based search features to Echo Spot and Echo Show. Now users can say, “Alexa, who is playing Captain Marvel?” Aside from the audio response, Echo devices will also show users the latest image Getty has of the movie’s lead actress Brie Larson.

This partnership came a year after rumors spread that Google is creating a contender for Amazon Echo—a device that’s supposed to launch this coming holiday season. Research from Canalys estimates Amazon’s Echo shipments at $4.1 million, a tad below the $5.4 million they estimated for Google during the second quarter of this year. Clearly Amazon is trying to nudge the Search Giant out of their lead in the Smart Speaker market.

2. Instagram to Add a Dedicated Section for Hashtags

Instagram is beta-testing a separate section just for hashtags, so users no longer have to waste their post’s caption or the first comment on it.

Since the use of hashtags is one of the easiest ways to increase your post’s reach to other users following the same trends, it’s no wonder many users are comfortable flooding their captions and comments with every hashtag that might be related to the image they uploaded. Hashtags like #sunsets, #beach, #YOLO, #vitaminsea for instance, are almost always included in the picturesque shoreline images ubiquitous on the platform. Expect to see shorter captions once this feature is rolled out for everyone.

3. State of PPC

Hanapin Marketing, the same team behind PPC Hero, surveyed 400 marketing professionals from different industries, such as finance, tourism, technology, and healthcare, to find the ongoing trends and their views of the industry for the coming year.

Survey confirms that search ads still top the list of advertising expenditures, followed by remarketing or retargeting ads. They also found that 31% of marketers feel unprepared to handle chatbots and another 29% have no clue how to adapt to voice search. As these are relatively new technologies, it’s safe to say those who can capitalize on these social media trends for business early on will have an opportunity to get ahead of their peers.

4. Facebook Pages can Now Participate in Facebook Groups

Social media community managers everywhere are celebrating this long awaited feature.

Before this feature became available, page owners such as authors, celebrities, public figures, and even non-profits had no way to interact with groups using their Facebook page—even the ones they own. Page owners had to pay for ads or be patient in posting organic content to attract new followers.

Here’s what a Facebook spokesperson shared with Social Media Today regarding the new feature:

“We’ve heard from people that engaging with public figures, non-profits, publishers, and businesses in a more intimate setting can be meaningful. We previously launched the ability for Pages to start Facebook Groups so that they can engage with their communities. We are now testing the ability for Pages to join existing Facebook Groups as well.”

Don’t expect this feature to be available in all groups though. Discretion to allow pages to like, comment, and share content directly to the group rests on the community’s owner.

5. Kopywriter Neville Medhora Shares How to Revive a Stale Blog

Is your blog not getting enough visitors? Read Neville Medhora’s step-by-step guide to writing better content and making sure it gets the audience it deserves. Like Neville’s other articles, you won’t find vague advice on this piece: he analyzed and improved a random travel blog post to show his exact methods.

Following this strategy might take a while but with the sheer number of blog posts and visual content published out there, you really have no choice of competing unless you step up your game.

6. Tool of the Month: TextRequest.com

Text Request allows users to add texting capabilities to their business phone (even if it’s a landline), and add a “click-to-text” feature on their website. Like email marketing service providers, you can also use it to send messages to a group or segment leads into different lists using keywords.

The average open rate for emails is a measly 22%. Promotional emails can bounce or get diverted to the spam folder but with group messages, you’ll have another way of connecting with your leads.

Don’t just abandon your email marketing campaigns. Treat SMS as an additional medium to extend your reach, and communicate with leads that meet the following criteria:

People who prefer to text instead of email

People who aren’t always online or have connectivity issues

Leads who have multiple email addresses

Check Back in Next Month

Stay tuned for next month’s digital marketing news dispatch so you’re always up to date with changes in the social media, PPC, and SEO industry.

If you’ve got a SEO tip or social media trends for business that you want to share, feel free to comment here or send us a message on our different social channels. As long as it’s about digital marketing, we’re all ears.